


and i don't know what i'd do without you now

by Hazloveshisboo



Series: We Know Where We Belong [26]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Non-Serum Steve Rogers/Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes | Shrinkyclinks, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Tiny bit of Angst, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, its really not anything, outsider pov, short and brief description of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 14:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20584139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazloveshisboo/pseuds/Hazloveshisboo
Summary: Steve is in close proximity to the villain of the week and Bucky is not having any of it.





	and i don't know what i'd do without you now

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all for your patience. you're all wonderful and i love all of you for putting up with me. after endgame i just got annoyed with steve and haven't really felt up to writing him (i wrote this one long before it came out) but I decided to post this one. I haven't given up on the series yet but it might take me a bit to get into steve again
> 
> title from Kill My Mind by Louis Tomlinson

It was the first major fight after Bucky’s injury that leads to the team finally meeting Steve again. They had been called to assemble for some half-assed villain outside of the airport, but he had hostages and they needed to be sure no one would get hurt. They were gearing up when Barnes arrived, he immediately changing into his tactical gear. Natasha gave him a quick briefing over what they were doing when Sam noticed the Soldier freeze. 

“Which airport?” he asked, voice strained. 

“JFK. Why?” Sam asked, standing to move closer to the Soldier. He had turn stone-faced and slung his rifle over his shoulder and left, going up the staircase to the waiting quinjet without a word. Sam met Natasha’s gaze as they both followed him up. The Soldier was already in the quinjet and strapped in. Sam and Natasha climbed in and within a minute, they were in the air. Sam watched the Soldier as they flew through the air. He was tensed, fists clenched in his lap as he stared directly forward. Soon enough they were landing on top of a building. Sam could hear the fighting from down below them. Before the quinjet has even shut all the way down, the Soldier was up and pushing the door open, dropping onto the concrete, pulling his rifle from his back. By the time Sam and Natasha had made it onto the roof, the Soldier was already halfway down to the ground. 

“Soldier, we had a plan,” Natasha said through the comms unit. The Soldier didn’t reply and seconds later gunshots sounded out.

“Shit,” Sam muttered and pressed the button on his chest that opened his wings and jumped off the building, flying down to meet the Soldier. There were already several deactivated robots littered around the Soldier when Sam landed. 

“Soldier, we had a plan,” Sam said sharply, raising his own weapons to help. “What happened?” 

“Steve,” the Soldier muttered, sights quickly shifting between enemies as he shot them down. 

“What about Steve?” Sam asked but instead of a reply, the Soldier moved forward. Natasha and Clint joined them a moment later, moving through the robots quickly as they got to where the hostages were being held. About halfway down the street, Sam heard the Soldier’s rifle jam and as he turned his head to look, he saw the Soldier throw the gun to the side and, instead of pulling out any of his others that Sam knew was hidden on his person, began punching his way through the robots. His metal and flesh arm were tearing through them alike. He was faster than Sam and the others combined and he had made it to the door of the building with the hostages within minutes.

“Soldier!” Clint shouted before he could break the door down. The Soldier froze where he stood and gave them the time to catch up to him. 

“What the hell is going on with you?” Sam asked, moving to stand in front of the Soldier. “You could have gotten us killed, you could have gotten killed!” 

“Steve,” the Soldier repeated, “is in a building two blocks from here for a job.” Sam sighed. 

“That doesn’t mean you can just run through guns ...fists blazing,” Sam corrected himself. “It’s dangerous and Steve is not actually in the line of fire. There are hostages in there and if you just burst in there, they might get hurt. So can you calm down enough to get through this mission with no civilian casualties?” The Soldier was silent for a long moment before he nodded. “Good, now let's continue with our plan.” 

Clint and Sam stood on either side of the door as Natasha knelt down to break open the lock using a magnet Stark had made. The door swung open silently, Natasha moving in first, Clint following after while Sam and the Soldier waited outside for their signal. There were a few grunts before three knocks sounded and the Soldier entered first, one of his many knives in hand, Sam following. There were two men knocked out in the entrance room. 

Sam gestured to where the three of them needed to go, Clint and the Soldier going one way while he and Natasha went the other. Sam and Natasha reached the room with the hostages first and worked on silently untying them from each other and one-by-one transporting them out of the building. By the time they were on the last of the hostages, the other door burst open and the Soldier came tumbling through, grunting as he caught himself and stood up.

“He found us,” he grumbled, rotating his metal arm, the plates shifting and grinding. Sam moved to pull his shield off his back but the villain crashed through the doorway before he had a chance, the Soldier jumping on him. Sam could barely blink before the Soldier had the man in a headlock and unconscious, body going limp. 

“You got any handcuffs?” Sam asked, breathing heavily as Clint stumbled into the room, bleeding from a cut on his forehead. The Soldier shook his head and held the villain up as Sam cuffed him. Once he was restrained, the Soldier threw him over his shoulder and made his way out of the building to the waiting cops. After dumping the man in the back of a patrol car, the Soldier yanked his phone from his pocket and stepped away and out of earshot of Sam. 

Sam was talking with the police when the Soldier came back over. “Not coming back to the tower,” he said. 

“We need to debrief with Maria,” Sam tried to argue, though he knew it wasn’t going to work with the Soldier. 

“I need to wait,” the Soldier said firmly. 

“Then we’re all waiting,” Sam shrugged and walked over, sitting down on a bench and crossing his arms. The Soldier looked angry but didn’t say anything as he moved to stand next to the bench, getting out of the street. Natasha and Clint joined them a few minutes later. 

“All the hostages make it out okay?” Sam asked them, sighing in relief at Natasha’s nod. They sat there silently for almost twenty minutes before they heard a voice call out for a bucky. The Soldier’s head shot up and he took off across the street. Sam, Natasha, and Clint watched as the Soldier picked up the small man, Steve, that they had met three months prior. Sam watched as the Soldier gently set Steve back on his feet before checking him over intensely, ending with Steve’s jaw cupped in his hands. They were speaking but the Soldier’s comms unit was turned off so Sam couldn’t hear what was being said. After a few minutes, Sam stood and nudged Clint, Natasha standing to follow so the three of them approached the Soldier and Steve. When they got close enough, Sam cleared his throat to announce their presence. Steve immediately looked over at them. 

“Hello. Sam, right?” Steve asked. “And you two are Natasha and Clint?” 

“Yes,” Natasha reached forward and shook Steve’s hand. “Nice to officially meet you.” 

“You as well. Buck tells me about you,” Steve said. “Sometimes. How did your mission go today?” 

“It was alright. We do need to get back to debrief, though,” Sam said pointedly, raising his eyebrows at the Soldier. 

“Buck, did you wait for me?” Steve sighed, rolling his eyes. “Go, do what you need to do and I’ll meet you at home.” 

“No,” the Soldier protested immediately. “I’m not leaving you here.”

“Buck, you know you can’t control what I do,” Steve said. “You need to go back and debrief or whatever, and I need to head home.”

“Come back with me and then we can go home together,” the Soldier argued back. Steve and the Soldier stared at each other for a long moment. 

“Fine. But if Dodger shits on the floor, you’re picking it up,” Steve said with finality and turned to look at Sam with expectant eyes. “Where are we going?” 

“Gotta get back up to the quinjet,” Sam said and pointed back to the building they had landed on. Steve huffed and pushed the Soldier forward, following behind him down the street. Sam glanced at Natasha and Clint before shrugging and following after Steve and the Soldier as well. As they walked up the stairs to the roof of the building, Sam could hear Steve beginning to pant heavily. 

“You alright, man?” Sam asked when they got about halfway up. Steve just nodded and dug around in his bag for a moment before pulling out his inhaler and taking a puff. 

“Steve, let me-” before the Soldier could get in another word, Steve cut him off with a glare. 

“If you even think of suggesting carrying me up the rest of these stairs, you’re not touching me for a month,” Steve barked at the Soldier, eyes cold. Sam bit his lip to keep his mouth shut as he watched the Soldier’s eyes widen before turning and making his way back up the stairs silently. 

By the time they made it all the way up to the roof and were boarding the quinjet, Steve was completely out of breath and red-faced as he took another puff from his inhaler. “You sure you’re alright?” Sam asked again. 

“I’m fine,” Steve almost growled at him and climbed into the quinjet. Sam just took a deep breath and got in the quinjet as well. Once they were all secured and Clint was in the pilot’s seat, they took off back to the tower. The entire way back, the Soldier fussed over Steve from their spots at the back of the quinjet, speaking quietly to him. They kept that up until they landed back at the tower, a couple of SHIELD agents waiting for them just off the landing pad. When they saw Steve, they began to object until Sam held his hand up to stop them. 

“Not worth it,” he said as he passed them, going down the first flight to their gear room, taking off each piece quickly. Natasha and Clint did the same in front of their lockers, the Soldier simply sitting on the bench as he waited. 

“Buck, why don’t you take your gear off here?” Sam heard Steve ask the Soldier, running his hands through the Soldier’s hair. The Soldier didn’t reply but he did glance around at them. “They’re not out to get you, Buck. They’re your teammates. Come on, get out of this for me.” Before the Soldier could get up, Steve used a hair-tie around his wrist to gather the Soldier’s hair in a bun on the top of his head. Sam covered a laugh with a fake cough and looked down to hide the fact that he was watching, but a moment later he did hear the Soldier start taking off his gear - something he had never done with them before. 

Sam looked back over at the Soldier, now wearing a plain black long sleeve shirt and his tactical pants. “That’s much better,” Steve said and leaned down, kissing the Soldier gently. It was strange for Sam to see the Soldier act like this, in the two years they had been on the Avengers together, he had never so once as smiled or laughed, and he did it so easily in Steve’s presence. 

“Time to debrief,” Maria said as she opened the door to the room, glancing at the five of them. “And you must be Steve. Were you witness to any of the events that happened during the mission?”

“Not today; didn’t get there until after,” Steve shook his head. 

“Then I’ll have to ask you to wait outside the debriefing room,” she said and glared at the Soldier when he growled at her.

“It’s not a problem, I understand,” Steve said and kissed the Soldier’s head. “I’ll be right outside and then you can take me home.” Sam smiled a bit at the Soldier's small huff. “And remember - you’re picking up the dog shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](https://hazloveshisboo.tumblr.com/)
> 
> as always, I am taking prompts, even if it takes me forever to fill them, just message me on tumblr or leave it in a comment!


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